Euronews

The story of Pi who is marooned on a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger combines his amazing tale of survival and adventure with several layers of metaphor.

The Taiwanese director says he was nervous throughout the four years of shooting about ensuring the art house movie had mainstream appeal.

Lee handpicked 17-year-old Suraj Sharma from 3,000 young men for the title role of Pi.

The majority of the film was shot in Taiwan. Lee drafted in a team of 150 people from around the world including experts in 3D animation and visual art and said he could not have made it in Hollywood as the tech team would have been “know it alls”. A large water tank was also built at a studio in Taichung in central Taiwan.